Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel Demo Impressions

A short while ago we told you that the demo for Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel was being released today. With that in mind, the demo has been played and it left me wanting more. I mean that in every sense of the phrase because not only does the demo provide some incredibly satisfying moments, it is also incredibly short. Lasting anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes based on your skill level and accuracy, the demo ends just as it begins to really draw the player in. Depending on your point of view, this could either be a very good strategy or a very poor one. On the one hand, it leaves the player wanting more of the action they just experienced, but conversely it can also leave a sour taste in the player’s mouth as the demo is so short that you may be left with the idea that this already action-centric game will abandon story altogether.

With the length of the demo aside, the gunfights you encounter should be familiar territory as taking cover against your wildly outnumbering opponents is the only way to survive. If you choose to stand and fight (as I did in one fight for the sake of amusement), you’ll quickly find yourself laying on the ground bleeding out and waiting for your partner to save you. I was pleased by this because in previous Army of Two games you were just as likely to survive on any difficulty except for the hardest one by standing in the open and never letting up on the trigger as you were by taking the more tactical cover-based approach. I did find that the amount of time needed to revive your partner has greatly decreased in this title so I’m hoping that when the game hits shelves, it will take a little longer. My partner didn’t even need to take cover to revive me, he simply walked over to me, dragged me about a foot, stabbed me with what I can only assume was adrenaline and I was as good as new again; the entire process took less than 5 seconds.

One moment that I enjoyed in the demo was facing off against a heavy enemy. These are not enemies you can take head-on, you need to use the aggro system to your advantage so that one of you can fire at his back and bring him down. If you’re not expecting the heavy enemy to show up, you’ll learn firsthand that they’re more powerful in this game than previous ones. Within two seconds of encountering him the first time, I found myself bleeding out on the ground before he turned his attention to my partner and began to grapple with him. While that may seem like an overpowered enemy to some, it is designed to reinforce the flanking and teamwork mindset, something at which it succeeds greatly. A nice touch that has been included in the demo is the ability to modify and upgrade your weapons a little bit. You’re given $60,000 to use on upgrades for your weapons, allowing players who may be new to the franchise the opportunity to have some fun trying out different combinations of weapon parts. Unfortunately, the controls didn’t seem to be quite as tight as I would’ve liked, so some tinkering with how responsive the analog sticks are may be needed.

Should you download the demo? Are you a fan of the Army of Two franchise? Do you enjoy cover-based shooters? Do you want to participate in a frantic hailstorm of bullets while operating a mounted machine gun in a helicopter? Do you want to download 1.6GB of data for 20 minutes or less of playing? If you’ve answered yes to those questions, go download the demo. If your answer was no, then you can pass over this demo and spend the time playing something else. Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel is being released on March 26th for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Eric wishes there had been even a hint of plot in the demo, but he’ll have to wait until the game launches to find out how the story holds up. He’s also an editor for Analog Addiction where you can find all the latest gaming news, previews, reviews, and everything else that rhymes with those words. ‘Like’ Analog Addiction on Facebook to receive all of the updates as they’re posted.